PURGE CONTINUES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 68, 22 March 1938, Page 7

PURGE CONTINUES

NAZIS IN AUSTRIA WHOLESALE DISMISSAL OF JEWS | (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) Received March 21, 9.15 p.m. LONDON, March 21. The purge in Austria continues with the relentless speed, says the Vienna correspondent of the News-Chronicle. The Nazis are working to carefully prepared plans. They control every movement, organisation, institution and club. Jewish school teachers, who are an important group in Vienna, have all been dismissed and Nazi teachers who previously were expelled owing to their illegal activities, have been reinstated. Government and municipal employees are allowed till April 10 to prove their German blood. A message from Prague says refugees from Austria reveal that the archives of the Austrian Chancellery and Foreign Office, which were hitherto believed to have fallen into Nazi hands, have mostly been saved and deposited with a friendly Governments relating to events after the Berchtesgaden agreement. Their removal will save numerous people from dangers. Nevertheless suicides among Jews and Catholics associated with Dr. Schuschnigg are growing, there being 60 yesterday. Youths aged from 15 to 16 years and wearing swastikas assaulted the Chief Rabbi and shaved off his beard. The Nazi methods often involve serious inconvenience. Herr Buerckel take strong measures against interannounced that the authorities would take strong measures against interference with the working of the railways, adding that the Nazis had removed hundreds of officials, resulting in disorganisation. The Gestapo has ordered Mr G. E. R. Gedye, the Daily Telegraph correspondent and one of the most outspoken and best-informed British journalists in Europe, to leave Austria within three days. Dr. Schuschnigg, who is still under arrest at Belevdere Palace, refused to sign a declaration binding himself to abstain from political activity in return for a safe conduct enabling him to leave Austria, says the Daily Mail’s Vienna correspondent. Although a year ago he advocated leniency for the Austrian Nazis, Baron Odo Neustaedter-Sturmer (former Austrian Minister of Public Security) was shot while under protective custody. It is revealed that Baron Karl Karwinsky, Minister of Justice under the Dollfuss regime, who was present in the Chancellery when Dr. Dollfuss was assassinated, has been held in custody by the Nazis for several days. Storm Troopers are posted outside the Jewish synagogues, on which placards have been placed announcing that no Sabbath service will be held.

APPOINTMENT BY HITLER REAL RULER OF AUSTRIA Received March 21, 11.5 p.m. BERLIN, March 21. Herr Hitler has appointed Herr Wilhelm Keppler, one of the economic advisers to the Reich, as Commissar of Austria. He will thus be the real ruler of Austria, and Dr. Inquart will be a subordinate, ensuring that control of Austrian affairs be in the hands of Germans closely associated with Hitler. EXPULSION WITHDRAWN CASE OF MR GEDYE Received March 21, 10.5 p.m. VIENNA, March 21. The German secret police withdrew the expulsion of Mr Gedye. He was given a partial explanation of the incident, which was tantamount to an admission that someone had blundered m the sudden abnormal emergency. CLOUD NOT DISPELLED CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S FUTURE. PRAGUE, March 19. Herr Hitler’s speech has not dispelled the cloud hanging over Czechoslovakia’s future, and officialdom does not feel any relief, especially after the references to the injustices of German minorities. The Government is introducing a Bill giving the German minority a share in local administration on a population basis. MR. LYONS COMMENTS. Received March 21, 11.17 p.m. MELBOURNE, March 21. Commenting on. Colonel Campbell’s proposal to organise a National Defence League, Mr. Lyons said that Australian public opinion would be guided by events as they arose and the Commonwealth defence forces were capably organised. He saw no reason for the formation of any body outside the defence forces to organise public opinion on defence.